In March, 436,600 people received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, down 4,400 (one per cent) from February 2019. On a year-over-year basis, the number of EI beneficiaries in Canada decreased by 33,500, down 7.1 per cent, with declines in all provinces except Manitoba, where the number of recipients increased by 2.7 per cent. (Black Press File)

Province’s largest population areas saw 5.7 per cent drop in EI recipients year-over-year

2,140 received regular EI benefits in March 2019, a drop of 3.2 per cent

This decline in the number of recipients appears across British Columbia. The province’s four CMAs (Victoria, Vancouver, Abbotsford–Mission, and Kelowna) saw their collective number of recipients drop 0.3 per cent from February 2019 to March 2019. Year-to-year, the number of recipients has declined 5.7 per cent.

Census agglomerations — communities with populations in excess of 10,000 — dropped by 0.4 per cent from February 2019 to March 2019. Year-to-year, the number of recipients has declined six per cent. Communities outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations also recorded a small month-to-month drop and a drop of 4.4 per cent year-to-year.

The number of EI recipients in British Columbia dropped by 5.5 per cent year-to-year, below the Canadian rate of 7.1 per cent, with declines in all provinces except Manitoba, where the number of recipients rose by 2.7 per cent.

Statistics Canada says in its analysis that variations in the number of beneficiaries can reflect changes in the circumstances of different groups, including those becoming beneficiaries, those going back to work, those exhausting their regular benefits, and those no longer receiving benefits for other reasons.